Five Loves of Seeley Booth
by screaming-poetically
Summary: He didn't want anyone telling him whatfor about his relationship... Booth and various pairings. Xover with Numb3rs.


**Fandom:** _Bones_ with crossovers from _Numb3rs_  
**Title:** Five Loves of Seeley Booth  
**Rating:** FRT  
**Characters:** Seeley Booth/various pairings  
**Content Warning:** Slash.  
**Summary: **Five pairings that _could_ happen.  
**Author's Note:** Written for Liz in response to the Five Pairings Meme (which I'm still taking requests for, by the way.)  
**Disclaimer:** All characters contained herein belong to the copyrighted franchises of _Bones _and _Numb3rs_. They either belong to CBS or Fox, and no infringements of these copyrights are intended, and are also used here without permission.

Five Loves of Seeley Booth

**Zack Addy**

"You're actually talking to me. Why? This is not part of our arrangement, it was agreed upon that silence was the easiest way to disregard what happened."

Booth shrugged. "That seems counterintuitive, _Doctor_ Addy, considering we both want it to happen again."

Zack moved to the other side of the examination table, eager to avoid any physical contact with the FBI agent. He was having difficulty quantifying his feelings, his very core reactions -- hell, his very _life_ -- when Booth was around. When did everything change, what was the catalyst?

"Zack." Booth stood across from him, hands braced on the aluminum table, his gaze intently focused on the younger man. "Can't think everything through, you know? Sometimes… you just have to give things a chance."

But Zack would rather think things through, because that was how he worked. He had to figure out whether the potential gain was worth the risk, given the potential loss. He had to examine his own needs and wants, see if he could fit Booth into his life again. He had to finish his second doctorate, and maybe work his way through a third. And did Zack miss Booth that much anyway?

"Dr. Brennan doesn't like it when you put your hands on the table. It may contaminate evidence."

"Sure," Booth said, lifting his hands. "Right. No touching, I understand."

Because Booth looked like defeat and there was so much more lying beneath his words, Zack explained to him about comminuted fractures and osteosarcoma, knowing that the world was about to begin again.

**  
Temperance Brennan**

The words stick to the roof of his mouth like peanut butter, words he's been trying to say for so long. Too damn long if he's honest with himself. Seeley Booth is many things, but a coward is not one of them. As he watches Brennan examine a partially decomposed body found near the White House, the words come. It is her first name he uses, her wonderfully rare first name.

"Temperance. I love you."

She stands up from where she was kneeling beside the body and regards him with a vacant look on her face. She doesn't say anything for a moment, and then finally, "I don't know what that means."

Booth looks around the scene to make sure that nearly everyone has gone, and then seeing that they have, he walks over to Brennan and pulls her closer to him by her upper arm. "Understand this, Bones," he says firmly, "you know damn well what me loving you means. It means I'm not going to leave you, not now or ever again. Loving you means the reason you don't have a gun is because I'm the one that protects you."

She tries to pull away from him but she can't; that, or she's just not trying hard enough. Maybe she never was. "Booth, you're hurting me--"

He releases her immediately, but not regretting what he has done. Dammit, he _loves_ her. Bones -- that is, Tempe -- he can't, won't, let her pass by him. He's let too many things go.

**  
Angela Montenegro**

"What are we doing, Booth?" Angela asked, curling into his side as rain splashed against the window in her bedroom.

"We were trying to go to sleep, but because you're afraid of thunder, we had sex instead," he replied, looking up at the ceiling. When Angela didn't say anything more, he turned to face her, resolve etched across his taut features. "But I guess that's not what you were talking about."

"I meant this. _Us_. I'm supposed to be with Jack right now, but I'm not. If he ever found out about us, it would break him. I can't even remember how this began. And you --" She broke off, not really sure how to broach the subject of Dr. Temperance Brennan.

"What about me, Angie?" Booth shrugged away from her embrace and sat up in the bed, resting on his elbows. He was tense now. It had seemed an unspoken agreement when they started this, that they would never talk about Hodgins or Brennan when they were together. She was certainly heading in that direction, and Brennan was dangerous territory where he was concerned. He didn't want anyone trying to tell him what-for about his relationship with her.

"I'm not her, Seeley," Angela said. She sat up too, and cautiously rested her hand on his shoulder.

"You think I don't know, Angela?" he said fiercely. "I've always known." His gaze moved from her eyes to her mouth and back again, so quick that she wasn't even sure it had happened. The only thing that convinced her it had was the way he suddenly leaned closer and tangled his hands in her hair, kissing her hungrily. God, Angela loved it when he did this, hot sweet and with wild abandon.

"Know you're not Bones," he said thickly, tugging her back down to the bed with him. "Why do you think I'm here and not there?"

**  
Colby Granger**

"Thanks for coming down, man. It's been rough, what happened with Dwayne, and I didn't know who else to call." Colby took a deep pull of his beer as Booth sat down next to him on the hood of his car. Damned if he didn't feel like some teenager, nervous and repeating himself at every turn. Drinking beers in the workplace parking lot was real cool. Booth should be different, they had fought in Afghanistan together…

"Anything for a friend." Booth smiled halfheartedly. "Didn't expect to see you in a suit anytime soon, CG. You look like shit," he said, punching Colby on the shoulder. They lapsed into silence, the only sounds being the cars passing out of the parking lot as FBI agents left to find absolution.

Colby said "Listen, Booth" the same time that Booth said "Colby" and they grinned nervously. Jesus, how long had it been since they had seen each other? Had to have been the day Colby was given leave to resign from duty, and Booth had tugged him behind a supply tanker. If there was one thing he hadn't wanted, it was for their last…whatever it was…to be something quick and hurried, sun beating down on them and breathing in sand between kisses.

"Been forever."

"Yeah," said Colby heavily. "I know."

Booth's hand squeezed Colby's shoulder in what a passerby would construe as a brotherly manner; however, both of them noticed that his hand lingered too long, and the way his fingers cautiously brushed the skin of Colby's neck.

"Missed you, Granger."

**Megan Reeves  
**

"You're a real son of a bitch, you know that, Agent Booth?"

"Look, I did what I had to in there. Sometimes you can't get what you need from a witness or suspect by coddling them, Reeves. You have to poke and prod. Even push."

Megan glared at the man the D.C. field office had sent over to "smooth along" interoffice relations in the serial killer case. Over thirty victims, mostly in the Los Angeles region with some bodies found in D.C. as well as one in Massachusetts. While Megan would concede that Seeley Booth got his results, she also thought the guy was a complete ass.

He studied her expression and tersely, "You don't know jack about me, Reeves, so let it go, understand?"

"Oh, I do know you," she said confidently. "You have Chinese food in your refrigerator, you have nightmares not dreams, you like your women blonde and yourself most definitely on top." Megan paused and scanned him from head to toe. "And boxers, not briefs."

"Shut up," Booth snapped. He could hear Megan's laughter (see her smile imprinted on his mind) as he walked away.

_  
A/N: One of these ficlets will be continued on in a later drabble, based on which one my friend Liz (whom this collection was written for) likes best._


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